This is 5903; RR's was 5902. Gaia and Rapaire were both heading for 5900 but split the minute between :25 and :26, thus one of them (Gaia as it happens) got displaced to 5901, while Rapaire the Tofu King made 5900.

Yes, indeed he did. And with his wife's computer, too, cuz my own is just now barely working.

There I was this morning, posting to Mudcat, when it friz up solid. Well, knowing Windows, I tried to reboot. No luck. So I power cycled.

The Gateway splash screen came up, the XP splashscreen came up, and that was all. They looped.

So after I tried all of my Ubergeek tricks, I reloaded the OS. Now I'm reloading the applications.

Monday I have a service level report due at City Hall, and I just got the data I need late yesterday. Tuesday I have to do a presentation on Vision, Goals, and Planning at the Leadership Institute at Idaho State U.

Because, Amos, as a ten-year veteran of Unix system Administration, I can deal with Linux better than MAC OSX (which is, I admit, one of the superior OSes).

A few years back I knew a website that made it look like your Windows OS was being replaced with MAC OS (8, I think it was). What it really did was open a new browser window, of course. Dang, but I wish I had that URL again!

You get all the term windows you can eat in MacOS, all the components of an extended BSD UNIX Command set, PLUS a beautiful and easy -to-use graphic interface for the right-brained set. You can grep all day AND mouse all day at the same time!! You can right text-based commands to rlogin via SSH for example, while running streaming quicktimemovies over the internet with just a click.

Love Stallman's vision of "free software". also love the idea of technology being accessible to everyone, and hope the PC will be out of the realm of Heath kits (remember those?) and go to the realm of "push the button; make it happen." Can't have both. [sigh] I guess I will stay with Windows, with the occasional foray to CD-bootable Gnu/linux.

In my heart of hearts, "I'm a gnu; I'm a gnu, the g-nicest work of g-nature in the zoo ..."

Yeah, the only reason I didn't put Gnu/Linux on my WinXP is that they won't play together. I got a WinXP and then my curiosity got the best of me, but it were too late.

And installing Gnu/Linux (the kind I want with all free software) is a daunting prospect. So I'm sticking to the tricks I know, so I can stay on Mudcat, etc. without a learning curve. I know; I'm lazy. :)

But I'm checking into having Linux installed on my machine at work "as a test" and the CIS boys are happier than clams in mud with the idea. They'd like to move away from the pricey pricey Windows stuff, but Those Higher Up won't let them. Something about fixing stuff all the time that shouldn't be broken in the first place.

Like about a year ago I got sick and tired of being called in on Saturdays to reboot the servers' ups. Then I took a good look at it: an APC unit designed to run one PC was being used to run two servers. Which explained a lot. So I called Liebert (I prefer Liebert, 'cause I think they make the best UPSes even if it does cost a tad more) and ordered up a GXT2 Upstation. $1,300 + the installation of a Hubble connector (that's a direct connection to the Hubble Space Telescope so that we have good GPS location), but the thing will keep FOUR servers working for an hour and we haven't had THAT problem since.

I get plumb annoyed over stuff like that and then I tend to overbuy a little bit....

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Thank you Mother, I thought I had to call in the frog croakin' brothers to stop the insanity. If I would have called in the frog croakin' brothers they would have croaked on that conversation. That would've put an end to that.

A survey of branding professionals by Brandchannel released yesterda found Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) to be the world's No. 1 brand in 2004, edging out Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) , which had held the top position for the previous two years. The iPod and Apple's marketing for the digital media device was cited as a major contributor for Apple's increased branding.

Amazing, huh -- especially when you think that twenty-two years ago neither of 'em existed!!

Dang, pardner, but that's right innerestin'. This here "Brandchannel" -- that like the Brand Inspector an' his Brand Book? An' Apple, what does their brand look like? A rockin' A on the right hip, maybe, with a jinglebob ear? An' from what I've seen a' Google, that brand might run clean 'round their stock:

GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOGLE,

startin' at the left shoulder and running clean around ta the right. Ya wouldn't need a brandin' iron er even a runnin' iron -- ya'd need a rotary marker. But it sure would be a hard brand ta change.

Some would suggest that all of this computer chat is one of the biggest loads of BS around. Mom shouldn't get bent out of shape about it. Especially when Mac Zealots start posting reviews!

Spoken by a PC user who hasn't bothered to try to make the switch because she's afraid that too many of her files wouldn't convert to the available software, or her programs wouldn't all install on the Mac, blah blah blah . . .

Hell, Stilly, all your Word Excel, Powerpoint docs would move right on over, and your IE bookmarks and your mail addresses and mailboxes too (I assume you're using Outlook). But you seem pretty content with what you've got -- certainly no sense disrupting a system that works ok!

Tomorrow night I am doing a presentation which will combine the best of the old and the new, the low tech and the high tech, to the Student Leadership Institute at Idaho State University.

I'm gonna do one of the powerpoint-like things, but I'm also gonna be using flint and steel firestarting stuff! Yes! Flint and steel (and I don't mean a lighter). A piece of steel and a rock, just like great great great grandpa used to use! During a program burned to a CD and projected onto a screen from a laptop computer via a computer projector!

I also have slide rules for when the batteries fail and the sun goes out.

Howdy ya'll! I ain't been aroun' here in a while. It's good t' see you buncha folks is still at it. Amis is still fulla it which means he mus' still be livin' in Caleefornia. That Rapeer boy's runnin' a close secont though, so look out, Amis. An' I see's Mizz Rusty Rebel's still hangin' out here. It mus' be purty cold in Minnesoter 'cause she be wearin' clothes. My brother Sheney Knause wuz kinda sweet on her, weren't he?

Ennyways, tha's whut I come here fer, is t' ask if ya'll's seen my brother Sheney. Ya know we had a operashun t' git my nose outta his butt-crack so's we ain't whatcha call "conjoined twins" no more. It shore has made life a whole lot simpler. An' it smells better too. We wus bofe able t' git real jobs an' start savin' up sum money so's we cud git as far away from each other as possible. Well, all th' money we'd saved up done went missin' an' I ain't seed hide ner hair of Sheeny in a month. I'm afeared he has met wif foul play of sum sort.

Errr... Mr. Knause? Mmmm... Not quite sure how to tell you this, but it sounds like your brother may have stiffed you. You know, absconded with the loot. Took the money and hauled ass. Not a very brotherly thing to do, if you ask me. But then I never had a brother with whom I was joined nose-to-butt-crack for most of my life. I did once have a co-worker who kept his nose glued to the boss's ass, but that's different.

But, hey, look, I'm not here to talk about your problems, you old reprobate. I'm here to be sure that all my MOABite friends post to the How Many Spatulas Do YOU Own??? thread. In my quest to start the World's Stupidest Thread it was the stupidest question I could come up with. I really need everyone's help to push it up near 100 posts so Flamingo Shithead can attempt to make the 100th post.

Well shit! Looks like I'm finally gonna have to get down on my hands and knees and connect the speakers to the computer. I forgot to do it when I put the thing pack together and haven't really wanted to be bothered with it until now. But if Amos thinks I would appreciate whatever it is, I guess I'll do it. It better be good!

I hope that wasn't too much technospeak for Mom. Using "connect" and "computer" both in the same sentence.... I certainly don't want to be sent to the corner.

Shiney,If you find your brother Sheney will you tell him for me that being he had his nose attached to your ass, and you had your nose attached to his ass, and that I never realized this about him until now, that the invite is retracted. I don't want him to go to Tweeds house and sniff his underwear for me anymore. How can that sweet person endure more than he already has?Thanks. Rusty

That wasn't Mom, that was that imposter again. As MOAB said, she doesn't need to log on as a f**kin' guest!

Amos--listen carefully--

Outlook?

NEVER!!!

Pegasus, Eudora, Mozilla Thunderbird, I'm using them all. I used to use Netscape Communicator (the old one). I haven't updated to the new one because AOL bought it and messed it up. We're stuck with Outlook at work, but I would never use it voluntarily.

Okay, back to the spatulas. Moonglow went and rifled my drawers. I think she missed a few (I didn't point out that the top drawer in the Hoosier Kitchen probably has extras from my Dad's house, 'cause I didn't have room with the other utensils).